Comic Rewind: Mystery Society Vol. 1

Nick Hammond aka Nick Mystery is about to enter prison, but first he explains how he got there in Mystery Society Vol. 1.

The Mystery Society is made up of Mystery and his wife, Anastasia Collins, but they are looking for new members. Their mission is to debunk or reveal life’s mysteries. As the issue starts Mystery has broken into Area 51 to rescue what are known as the Atomic Twins.

The Atomic Twins are young twin girls who were experimented on and have amazing powers. They can teleport, create force fields and blow things up with their minds. In the 1950s they were deemed too dangerous and cryogenically frozen.

However, Mystery is going to rescue them and ask them to join the team. While Mystery is out on mission Collins gets a visitor back at HQ. Samantha Brooks aka Secret Skull breaks in and is waiting for Mystery to come home. A struggle ensues and results in Secret Skull joining the team.

The final member of the team comes in the form of a brain inside a robot. This brain is not just an ordinary brain but is the brain of famous author Jules Verne.

After Mystery returns with the twins and to meet his new team he sees he has been framed for murder with video proof. The Mystery Society now has two missions to work on. First is to prove Mystery’s innocence and second is to rescue the skull of Edgar Allan Poe which has been stolen.

Mystery Society Vol. 1 was written by Steve Niles with art by Fiona Staples and Ashley Wood. IDW Publishing published the volume in 2010.

This comic has a really strong base for some really cool stories, but it failed to deliver. The characters were pretty flat apart from Mystery. I don’t really get the other character’s motives or their personalities. Verne is literally a famous author’s brain in a robot, but he is the most boring character.

If I didn’t know any better I would have thought this was a prequel to a very successful comic. Every time a character is introduced it feels like I am supposed to be excited to see their first introduction. However, I don’t know any of these people or care about them. This would have been a much better volume two or three than a volume one.

Mystery and Collins are rich, but they never say how they got their money or how much they have. In the volume they allude to it may be from winning the lotto, but we never get anything concrete.

The art is really the best thing about the volume. Staples is one of the best comic artists today and it is apparent in this comic. Her art in this is not as colorful as I’m used to but still very clean and well done.

I felt this comic has a very strong base and could have had some really cool stories, but this volume really failed to produce much excitement.